Delek US Holdings, a Brentwood, Tennessee-centered downstream energy corporation, is pushing back at what it describes as a proxy contest coordinated by CVR Vitality, a competitor managed by investor Carl Icahn.
What Took place: CVR obtained a 15{312eb768b2a7ccb699e02fa64aff7eccd2b9f51f6a579147b7ed58dbcded82a2} stake in Delek final year and is its most significant shareholder Icahn owns 70{312eb768b2a7ccb699e02fa64aff7eccd2b9f51f6a579147b7ed58dbcded82a2} of CVR. In January, CVR CEO David L. Lamp despatched a letter to Delek Chairman and CEO Uzi Yemin proposing the alternative of a few administrators with a trio of CVR nominees, to be voted upon all through Delek’s shareholder’s meeting on May well 6.
“Delek desperately desires new strategic path,” Lamp wrote. “We would like to get the job done collaboratively with you to substitute a few of your nominees at Delek’s impending 2021 Once-a-year Meeting.”
On April eight, CVR submitted a lawsuit towards Delek, saying that the CEO’s whole payment of $eighty one million in excess of the final eight decades was “eye-popping” and was never adequately disclosed to shareholders, introducing that “Yemin is a poster boy for all that is erroneous with corporate governance in The usa.”
What Else Took place: Although Lamp claimed CVR experienced no intention to launch a takeover, Delek insisted that is not genuine. The corporation produced a new shareholder letter and a point sheet submitted with the U.S. Securities and Trade Commission that mentioned Sugar Land, Texas-centered CVR was eager to acquire rival Delek.
To accomplish its outcomes, Delek continued, CVR was following “Carl Icahn’s many years-outdated playbook of nominating mates and colleagues and building a selection of deceptive statements and fifty percent-truths to ‘see what sticks’ as it seeks to get its nominees elected.”
Delek refuted the lawsuit’s promises, insisting the litigation was meritless and CVR sought to “obtain information and facts that is inappropriate to share with a competitor.”
Delek’s assertion also asserted that CVR promises of a poorly-operate corporation ended up senseless because “Delek’s whole shareholder return (TSR) in excess of the earlier 5 decades is 78{312eb768b2a7ccb699e02fa64aff7eccd2b9f51f6a579147b7ed58dbcded82a2} as opposed to 6{312eb768b2a7ccb699e02fa64aff7eccd2b9f51f6a579147b7ed58dbcded82a2} for CVR.”
The Delek shareholder letter inspired the company’s stakeholders to stay the program with the current board membership while depicting CVR as a “competitor whose interests are not aligned with people of Delek’s shareholders” … which is “pursuing practices from the Icahn playbook to advance [its] self-serving agenda.”
This story originally appeared on Benzinga. © 2021 Benzinga.com.
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Image: Delek US